Aircraft & Propulsion

Indian airline Vistara advanced its goal of launching international service in 2018 with commitments to order 13 Airbus A320neos and six Boeing 787-9s, in deals valued at a combined $3.1 billion at list prices, the company announced July 11.

French leisure airline Aigle Azur has operated its first long-haul flight, linking Paris Orly with São Paulo in Brazil.

JetBlue’s choice of the just-rebranded Airbus A220 gives the airline significant operational flexibility starting next decade, but the New York-based airline insists it intends to keep its focus-city strategy and leverage the new aircraft’s economics to help drive bottom-line improvements without changing its growth plan.

Thai Airways will reportedly order 23 aircraft this year, in a move the airline has signaled for several months.

Virgin Galactic has signed a framework agreement to bring commercial space flight to Italy, following two years of business discussions, regulatory analysis, studies on potential operations and market assessment.

Gear-driven compressor concept could enable path to hybrid “eco” upgrade of current-generation turbofan-powered single-aisle airliners.

JetBlue Airways, providing an early boost to the newly rebranded Airbus A220 line and delivering a notable blow to Embraer, has placed an order for 60 A220-300s—previously known as Bombardier CS300s—and earmarked them as E190 replacements.

Low pass of Airbus A220

Airbus hopes to secure “several hundreds of additional orders” for the newly renamed A220 this year, according to Airbus CCO Eric Schulz.

Supersonic airliner developer Boom Technologies has narrowed the choice of candidate powerplants to derivatives of existing low-bypass-ratio turbofans.

Airbus A330 marketing manager-customer affairs Silvia Ustupska talks about the A330neo after a route-proving flight from Chicago O’Hare to Atlanta Hartsfield July 7.

Gulf Air has canceled its order for 10 Bombardier CS100 regional jets.

Confusion surrounded the status of Gulf Air’s order for Bombardier CSeries regional jets July 6, as reports on several European aviation sites suggested the Bahraini carrier had canceled the deal.

Airbus is continuing its route-proving program toward A330neo certification, completing a 2-hr. leg from Chicago O’Hare to Atlanta Hartsfield July 7.

Airbus CEO Tom Enders has accused the British government of having “no clue, or no consensus” of how to achieve Brexit—when the UK leaves the European Union (EU)—without severe harm.

Airbus has started reducing the number of A320neo family “gliders” awaiting engines at its facilities in Toulouse and Hamburg.

The A350-1000 is Airbus' latest widebody and the manufacturer has high hopes the aircraft will be a big sales success. Aviation Week & Space Technology evaluation pilot Tim Wuerfel was given the opportunity to test-fly the aircraft from the company's Toulouse base.

The aircraft proves easy to fly manually and brings a new level of safety-enhancing automation to the airliner cockpit.

Following months of negotiations, Boeing and Embraer have signed an MOU to set up a joint venture (JV) comprising Embraer’s commercial aircraft and services business.

Cambodian startup airline KC International Airlines took delivery of its first aircraft, an Airbus A320, July 2.

Chinese airline Okay Airways received its first Boeing 737 MAX 8 July 2. The new aircraft, registered B-1485, departed Seattle July 1 and arrived in Beijing to join Okay’s all-Boeing fleet.

Aircraft News-July 3, 2018

Ethiopian Airlines took delivery of its first Boeing 737 MAX 8 July 2.

AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes is holding discussions with Airbus about confirming A330neo deliveries, and he signaled the carrier may be interested in further Airbus orders.

Airbus and Bombardier confirmed the transaction transferring majority control of the CSeries program to Airbus was completed as scheduled July 1.